OK, after almost a week with my new short hair I've finally snapped to the two things that really made it look look so gorgeous after my stylist worked on it. The First is the styling spray he used, which is Smooth and Seal by Straight Sexy Hair, which is really an incredible product. It does leave some of that mega hairspray smell behind (and in the bathroom!), though, which is not good for me all the time because I do my hair before bed usually. But it's fabulous stuff, really, adds a lot of shine.

I also realized that the two hot irons I had were not going to work real well with my new hair. Or my hairbrushes, I had to get new smaller ones. I have a Conair round iron that is usable, but kind of rough on my hair and dangerously hot. And I had bought a fabulous Babyliss straightening iron about a year ago, but it's over 2 inches wide and just won't work. But I kept thinking I'm missing something and after some research figured out what it is. I didn't have my glasses on while my hair was being styled (and wasn't allowed to look), but when I mentioned I had a straightening iron my stylist asked what kind of Chi I had, which I thought I heard wrong, but then he mentioned it a few more times. So after some Google searches, I found out he meant a Farouk Chi flat iron, which is top of the line professional and very pricey. It also has ceramic plates and lots of safety features that let him get right up to my scalp without burning me like my Conair does.

But I'm determined to recreate the super straight, shiny hair I had a week ago, so I looked around on eBay and found them for sale for about 2/3 of the retail price. After more reading up, I decided to get the new Turbo version, which has variable heat settings and some added features the older version (there are many of the older one on eBay) didn't have. So I bought a one inch iron and will hopefully get it in the mail this week, the seller was one of two salons that had them for Buy It Now, and both promised same day Priority shipping. Some of the big discount type sellers were kind of vague in their shipping, and also sold things like bed linens so I decided to stick with a specialized seller. I'm a big believer in getting the best you can afford for things you use all the time and rely on so we'll see how this does.

I think I'm going to have to play with my haircolor, though, the red is looking much too coppery, which I didn't want, I think I'm going to have to add some blue based dark red to it. I should just dye it black again, but then I'd be back where I started. But I'm going to wait till the semi-perm dark brown washes out a bit more. It's really nice having someone else do the dirty work on my hair color, but I think I may invest more money in keeping my cut in good shape and do my color myself.